Student evaluates campus gym situation

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One of the benefits of attending a university is access to a gym or recreation center without paying a fee like at commercialized fitness centers. However, one major problem with using a free gym is the amount of space available. Most of the time, there are too many people in the facility to get an efficient workout in. The problem isn’t the large amount of people. It is the lack of space in general.

There is not an easy solution to this problem. There are enough bench and squat racks for weight lifting treadmills and bikes for cardio but it doesn’t leave enough room in between. There is not enough room for medicine ball workouts, suspension training or plyometrics.

Even if space was created by taking away machines and racks, there is still an issue of space created by overpopulation. How do we expand the gym so that it is inclusive to all workouts as well as the entire student body?

Logistically, there is not many options for expansion; we could take out one of the basketball courts, but we should not limit the basketball and volleyball teams practice space. We could expand toward Vandervelden Court and Gilbert but that would cut into parking which is already a troubling issue.

We could find an entirely new place dedicated for building a gym like many other schools do. However, this would cost money that university does not have in their budget for an issue that is rather trivial. I agree the size of the gym should is not adequate for the size of our student body, but there is no easy response to this student desire.